Temporal Mechanics
by Kathryn Rayner Of Voyager
Summary: Someone's been messing with the timeline.


Temporal Mechanics

"She dumped me. She _dumped_ me. I can't believe it, Kathryn, I really can't. I just don't understand Seven. She's so confusing. She says one thing, and then she turns around and says sosmething that totally condradicts what she just said!"

"Calm down, Chakotay. I don't think anyone completely understands Seven and I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt or upset you, that's just the way she is, I think," Kathryn hands him a cup of herbal tea and sits down in a chair opposite him with a coffee, a smile on her lips.

"He dumped me. He _dumped_ me. I don't understand, Will, I really don't. I can't really believe he would do that to me, Will, he was so gentle. He always speaks in riddles, and is kind and sweet one minute, rough and scary the next. I don't get it Will, I just don't get it."

"Hey, it's okay, Dee. Worf's a great guy, but he can be quite hard to understand . . . at least I find him hard to understand. At least you're still friends and you don't hate each other, if that's not something then I don't know what is!" She smiles at his comment as he hands her a Hot Chocolate and sits down in a chair opposite her with his own Hot Chocolate.

Two stories of true love seperated by fear, work and other raging emotions. He watches with amusement as one comforts the others broken emotions. He smiles and turns back time to alter the past and give both couples another chance at happiness and joy in true love.

"Chakotay, help me up!"

"Kathryn, where are you?"

"Down here!" Chakotay skidded down the side of the small slope and pulled Kathryn to her feet, holding her steady as she regains her balance, his hand pressed in the small of her back. She looks around. "Where are we?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," said a voice from on top of the slope. Kathryn and Chakotay turned and squinted up into the glaring sunlight, trying to make out the shadows that stood above them. They scrabbled clumsily down the slope and grin at Kathryn and Chakotay.

"Will?"

"Good to see you too, Kathryn, you're looking well." She blushed, her hand seeking out Chakotay's, the other self-consciously resting on her slightly swollen abdomen.

The dark-haired girl raised an eyebrow. "You've met, then?"

"At the Academy. We were in the same class." She snorted light-heartedly. "Who's your friend?" Kathryn looked up at Chakotay. He smiled and squeezed her hand.

"This is Chakotay. You?"

"Deanna," the dark-haired girl said quickly. She gestured to Kathryn's stomach. "How far along?"

"About five and a half months." She was staring at the floor, uncomfortable.

Chakotay, sensing her discomfort, changed the subject. "So, where d'you think we are? It doesn't remind me of anywhere I know, in either the Alpha Quadrant _or_ the Delta Quadrant."

"It looks like the Jalara Jungle on Betazed, but more open," Deanna seemed unfazed.

"Or the Amazon Rainforest on Earth. It looks like the pictures I found in the Enterprise's databanks," Will commented.

"New Earth," Kathryn murmured softly. Chakotay's hand tightened around hers, but she didn't seem to notice. "Look." She points through the trees at a dull grey object and tugs at Chakotay's hand, setting off through the trees. Will and Deanna share an amused look and follow.

"Where could they be? They couldn't have just disappeared into thin air, there has to an explanation for all of this. And how the hell did you get here, Voyager was the only Federation Starship in the Delta Quadrant," B'Elanna paces the length of the Briefing Room, twisting her hands, glowering at the Captain and Chief Medical Officer of the Federation Starship Enterprise.

"Lieutenant Torres, please calm yourself, getting angry will not help matters," ordered Lieutenant Tuvok, who sat in at the head of the table in the Briefing Room. She snarled at him, and continued pacing, frowning.

"What about the planet the Captain and Commander Chakotay called New Earth? A certain Q was always trying to make the Captain happy, maybe this is just another one of his plans. And he tried to do the same for Commander Riker and Counsellor Troi," Tom Paris suggested.

"A reasonable assumption, Ensign. At maximum Warp, we are only a day's travel from the planet named New Earth," smirks Seven of Nine.

"It's your monkey, Kathryn. And it looks like he's made himself at home!" Kathryn laughed openly, her heart leaping as the monkey started to screech at them, waving his arms as he scuttled twoards them.

"I think he wants us out!" she manages, struggling to breathe she was laughing so hard. They stumbled out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Will asks, disturbed by their laughter.

"Kathryn's pet monkey!"

"He's . . . not . . . my . . . pet . . ." Kathryn gasped, sinking to the floor, her knees weak from laughter.

A tiger growl erupts from a nearby bush, and Kathryn starts to choke, her eyes widening in panic and her breath hitching, her heart racing. Chakotay wraps his arms around her shoulders and she clings to his arm, clearly distressed.

Will and Deanna turn, easily picking out the yellow, black and red glow of tiger eyes in the shadows of the trees and bushes. They back away until they back into the wall of the shelter, the glowing eyes advancing forward, the leaves of the bushes rustling.

The tiger is larger than life, white and black stripes against solid orange. Its teeth glint in the sunlight, long, sharp and scary. Its claws are curled and shiny. It is well-muscled and strong, its tail long and swaying from side to side.

It stops a few feet from them, sniffing them and snarling. Deanna moved closer to Will, weaving her hand into his. Kathryn hides her face in Chakotay's shoulder, struggling to breathe through the panic and fear, the lasting effects of her laughing fit causing her breath to hitch. It moves closer to Kathryn, sniffing her hair.

"It's gone. Just gone."

"Please eloborate, Mr. Paris."

"I'm not picking the planet up on long range sensors. There is no trace that there even was a planet with the orbit of New Earth."

There's a rushing of air and the tiger roars. Its glowing eyes roll back into its head and it slumps to the floor. A scruffy haired blonde girl with black, dark blue and purple highlights in her layers and blue eyes drops from a tree. She looked about fifteen and is covered in bruises, cuts, scrapes and grazes. A large scar runs down the front of her left leg, another, smaller one running across her right cheek and over the bridge of her nose. She's dressed in furs and sandals, carrying a bow in one hand, a set of arrows in a leather bag on her back. She tilts her head at the group, and beckons for them to follow her.

They don't hesitate to follow her into the forest. She leads them through the forest and into a large clearing where a small colony of people living in hand-built, old-fashioned tepes.

A tall teenage boy spots the little group first and runs to meet his friend. They converse in a language that Kathryn, Will and Deanna can't understand.

"Chakotay-"

"Yes, I know." He frowned. "They're from Earth. The girl recognizes New Earth as from far away a time in the future, and says that someone has been messing with space and time."

"I think she might be onto something with that theory," Will murmured.

"She is. She's a smart kid, that girl. Lot like you, Kathy, very much the scientist," commented a whispering voice in Kathryn's ear.

Kathryn spun around. "Q!" she hissed. "Are you responsible for this?" He grinned innocently and shook his head.

"I might have mentioned a little idea I had to someone with a bit more power than me, but I didn't do it, honest!"

"Well then, you can go back to where you came from and sort it out!" growled Will.

"Make me-" he didn't finish. "Okay, I'm going, Kathy, I'm going! Hell, your death glares just get scarier and scarier." He disappeared.

Kathryn sighed, and leaned back against Chakotay as he wrapped his arms around her waist, closing her eyes, a nervous muscle twitching in her jaw. "I don't know how much longer I can do this, Chakotay."

The girl with scars approaches. "He Q. Q do this?"

"I wouldn't put him past it," Deanna smirks and rubs her eyes tiredly.

"You speak English?" Will asks.

"Little. Understand. You tired. Stay. Eat. Rest. Feel better. Then solve big Q problem," she takes Will and Deanna to a small tepe on the edge of the collection of tepes. "You stay here." She leads Kathryn and Chakotay to a slightly bigger tepe in the center of the collection of tepes by the big, central fire. "You stay here."

"Ideas?"

"You haven't worked it out yet? Aww, I'm hurt. Even the girl from the wrong century had worked it out by now," the mocking voice echoed round the Briefing Room.

"Your attempts to sperate our crews will not be successful, Q."

"Ah, Tuvok, Tuvok, Tuvok, always going with the logical dedcision." Q popped into appearance by the viewscreen. "I'm not trying to break apart your crew, I'm trying to make my two favourite couples happy, look," he flicks on the viewscreen.

It shows an old indian style tepe colony, gathered around a fire. There is meat being cooked over the fire as the sun sets behind the trees behind the tepes. Will and Deanna sit talking and laughing on one side of the fire, seemingly at ease with the colonists and their home in the forest. Kathryn and Chakotay sit on the other side of the fire, Kathryn leaning against Chakotay, his arm around her shoulders, supporting her as she rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed, a smile on her lips, one hand on his knee, the other resting on the swelling of her stomach.

"Time passes faster for them than for you. A day for you, a week for them, a week for you a month for them. Hurry, hurry, hurry, or that little one will be here and they might not want to leave . . ." he disappeared, leaving the viewscreen active.

There was a shocked silence in the Briefing Room.

"The Captain . . . _Pregnant?_" managed B'Elanna at last, staring at the viewscreen, her mouth opening and closing in bewilderment.

"Your crew are a bit slow, Kathy." Kathryn jumps, startled awake as Q appears behind her.

"Crew no slow. Crew just no understand," says the scruffy girl with the scars. She hands carved plates of food to Kathryn and Chakotay and siddles off again, limping.

"I like her," says Kathryn with a heartfelt grin.

"Oh, you would," Q retorts sarcastically.

"Q, shut up. What do you want anyway," Chakotay asks with barely disguised anger.

"I want to see you happy, is that such a crime?"

"Just us? What about Will and Deanna?"

"They were meant to be together. They just need some time alone together to realise it."

"They look like they're meant to be together. When did you turn into such a romantic, Q?" smiled Kathryn, her eyes misting over slightly as she watched Will tickle Deanna and make her squeal with joyful laughter.

"At least one of you is happy."

"Don't get overly excited, Q, it could just be hormones. They reek havoc on your emotions," purred Kathryn tiredly. She finished her food and, setting aside her plate, started to slip small pieces of meat from Chakotay's plate.

"Going fishing already, Kathryn?" she giggled, and nodded, still slipping pieces of meat from his plate. "You're going to make this a habit, aren't you?"

"Mmm." He kissed her on the forehead.

"At least your eating properly."

"Mmm!" She hit him indignantly on the arm.

"Okay, I'm sorry!" he held his arms up in mock surrender. "But it's good to have you back."

She swallowed. "Where did I go? I don't remember going anywhere." He grinned.

"You didn't, but I did. And now I'm glad to be back." He kissed her, fully on the lips this time, and she responded immediately, covering his hand and kissing him back. When they broke apart, breathless, they noticed that Q was gone and the scruffy girl with the scars was standing next to them.

"Q man say you be happy. Scruffy say you be in love." Kathryn smiled happily.

"Scruffy, is that your name – Scruffy?" wonders Chakotay. She nods.

"Well, then, Scruffy, I think you're right." She smiles, and a dimple appears by her nose. She limped away, a slight skip in her step now.

"She has the same dimples as you, Chakotay," Kathryn murmured, smiling a tired half-smile. They sit together for a while, before Kathryn's eyes can barely remain open.

"Come on, Kathryn, I think it's bedtime," she doesn't object, holding his hand as she stumbles towards their tepe home. It's small, but not tiny, and neither complains as they curl up together on the furs, Chakotay's arm draped over Kathryn's waist, the other supporting his head. Kathryn's leg draped over his, one of her hands resting lightly against his chest, the other resting on her swollen stomach. Entangled together, they're soon asleep, the twilight breeze and the crackle of the dying fire lulling them to sleep through the slight gap in the tepe flap.

"They're starting to get really settled down there," there's a perplection in Tom's voice.

"It is a logical thing to do. So far, we have not yet come up with a way to bring them back to their ships, even with Q's help. They seem to understand that they will be on the planet indefinetly."

"We _have_ to get them back. It just be as fun without them, and there doesn't seem to be much point going home without them, because they're the ones that have worked harder than anyone else on board to get us this far," complained B'Elanna.

"And it is highly unlikely that the Enterprise would be able to adapt to life in the Delta Quadrant or be able to make it home without its First Officer and Ship's Counsellor," said Neelix.

"He's made a very good point," said the Enterprise's CMO, Beverly Crusher. "The Enterprise won't be the same without them, there won't be as much life on board."

"We have to get them back," the Enterprise's Captain, Jean-Luc Picard, slams his fist down on the Briefing Room table.

"But first we actually have to _find_ them. Once we've found them we can work on a way to get them home," quipped the Doctor.

"If I were Q, where would I take the Captain and Commander Chakotay?" pondered Tom.

"They're so happy together, Will, just look at them, it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen!" Deanna murmured, watching Kathryn and Chakotay sat together by the lake, arms wrapped around each other, feet bare as they scimmed the surface of the lake.

The setting sun silhouetted them in shadows against the backdrop of the glittering lake and trees in the far off distance.

"Kathryn's pregnant, Dee, he's just trying to take care of her and look after her. But, if you want to think that they're sweet together, suit yourself," Will grumbled. Deanna looked startled and upset.

"What's got into you, Will? You're not usually like this."

"Nothing. I just want to go home, that's all. I love being able to spend time alone with you, but I miss all our friends on the Enterprise. I just doesn't seem right that we get to see and the experience the wonders of such a beautiful planet without them." Deanna's face had fallen and she stared glumly at the floor.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. If only we could contact Voyager and the Enterprise in some way."

"Computer?"

"What?" Will and Deanna turn to find Scruffy stood behind them, holding what looked like a small, flat, rectangular, metal box, with the word Samsung written in bold white capitals on the lid. She held it out to him.

"Computer," she repeats, "send message home." Will's face lights up as an idea begins to form in his mind. He jumps up, kisses her on the cheek and takes the piece of metal, running over to Kathryn and Chakotay with it held tightly in his hands, dropping to the floor by Kathryn's side and starting to explain his idea to her.

Scruffy sits down on the log next to Deanna. "Want home, too?" Deanna sighed.

"Of course I do. I guess I'm just worried. What'll happen to me and Will when we get back home? I love him more than anything, and I want us to be together and happy, but what if it doesn't work for us, like it did before?"

"He love you."

"I know that, but-"

"It work."

"But-"

"It work."

"But-"

"It work."

"How can you be so sure, Scruffy?"

Scruffy pointed from Chakotay to Kaathryn. "He hurt." She points from Kathryn to Chakotay. "She forgive." She dropped her hand to her lap. "They love. They happy."

"So you're saying that I have to forgive Will for hurting me before I can love him properly?" The little girl nodded.

"He say sorry. Have to accept. Feel better then."

"Sir, I'm picking up a faint subspace signal from the farthest planet. It appears to be in a state of temporal and spacial flux," says Ensign Harry Kim, tapping at his console.

"Mr. Paris, lay in a course for the farthest planet and engage at Warp 6," orders Tuvok.

Voyager jumps to Warp 6, and arrives at the planet in half an hour. Tuvok orders Tom to take Voyager into a low orbit and scan the surface.

The scans show that a temporal and spacial annomaly had pulled the Amazon Rainforest of the twenty-first century had been pulled together with the present day planet New Earth to create a new planet in this system where time moves faster.

"Now how did that happen?" muttered Harry.

"Geordi, what've we got on that planet?"

The Enterprise's Chief Engineer activates the viewscreen in the Enterprise's Briefing Room. "It's a planet that seems to have been formed by the melding of the twenty-first Amazon Rainforest from Earth and present day New Earth. Time on the planet passes faster than in the rest of the system, but that might just be because of the time differences between the places that make up this new planet."

Scruffy bounds merrily over to Will, Deanna, Kathryn and Chakotay. She holds out her hand and shows them a glinting Starfleet comm badge. "Scruffy find. It pretty." Kathryn takes the comm badge and turns it over. Across the back, _Neelix _was written in a ghostly, spider scrawl.

"Neelix's comm badge," she whispers, showing it to Chakotay. She turns it back over and smiles as it glints in the bright sunlight. She gives the comm badge back to Scruffy, her smile broadening into a grin as Scruffy starts to jump up and down, excited by the glittering piece of technology she holds in her hand.

"Scruffy show, Scruffy show, Scruffy show," Scruffy laughed happily, pulling Chakotay to his feet and tugging him towards the forest. He looks back and grins at Kathryn, and she grins and waves back.

"She seemed really excited over that comm badge," Deanna remarked. "Who's was it?"

"Neelix's. I've found that Scruffy's pleased by the simple and easy things. She's smart, but she's got the innocence of a girl much younger than her years."

"She's really sweet, what with the way she turns up out of nowhere, seems to know what your problems are and what to say," grinned Will. "She's also really cute. She looks a lot like you, Kathryn, and she has a lot of your qualities." Kathryn blushed and looked down, gently rubbing small circles over her abdomen.

"I don't think I understand what you mean, Will . . ."

"Well, for starters, she's very pretty, she's smart, she's strong, she's fast," started Will.

"She'll be a good leader one day, she's loving and caring, she's gentle and kind, and she has a heart of gold," finished Deanna.

Kathryn looked up at them, tears in her eyes, smiling.

Scruffy shot out of the trees and hid behind Kathryn, peering over her shoulder and watching with wide eyes as Chakotay walks out of the shadows of the trees, Neelix, Tuvok, B'Elanna Torres, the Doctor, Jean-Luc Picard and Geordi la Forge.

"Scared," she whispers. Kathryn pulls her to sit by her side and puts an arm around the little girl's shoulders.

"Why are you scared?" she pointed from Neelix, to Tuvok, to B'Elanna.

"Scary."

"Honey, they might look scary, but they're really quite nice. They're friends, and they don't bite, honest," Scruffy looked unconvinced. "Do you want to meet them? Once you get to know them, they're some of the best friends you will have," she bit her lip and nodded slowly, looking weary and uncertain. "Help me up then."

Scruffy and Will helped Kathryn to her feet as Deanna ran to hug Geordi and Captain Picard, delighted to see them. Will walked ahead to greet his Captain and Chief Engineer as Scruffy hid behind Kathryn, the extra weight of her bulging stomach slowing her down.

Neelix scuttled forward and hugged his Captain happily. "Captain, you look positively radiant!" he exclaimed merrily. "Oh! Who's this pretty little girl? You must be the little tiger puppy Scruffy that Chakotay was telling us about!" Scruffy couldn't help but giggle. The strange green man wasn't scary at all – he just liked talking and was very loud too!

B'Elanna was next to hug Kathryn. "We're going to have a few hitchhiker's with us on our way home, Captain – whoever's to blame for this brought the Enterprise to join us! Finally! Someone to talk other than the Voyager crew!"

"Hey!" Scruffy grinned at Kathryn's indignant reply. The woman with the ridges was funny. The man with the pointed ears stands behind the woman with ridges.

"A chance to converse with those that they do not know might be the wisest idea for both crews, Captain. Voyager's crew could help the crew of the crew of the Enterprise adapt to life in the Delta Quadrant, and the Enterprise crew could provide a rise in Voyager's morale," his voice and face are emotionless. Scruffy withdraws behind Kathryn, wrapping her arms around Kathryn's left, almost like a koala clings to a tree, the lack of emotion making Tuvok seem more daunting . . . but he seemed less scary now.

"Who's this?" B'Elanna asks, peeping over Kathryn's shoulder at Scruffy. "She's cute."

"Now, there's something we have to worry about," mutters the Doctor sarcastically as he starts to scan Kathryn and Scruffy. Scruffy backs away from the Doctor as he starts to run his tricorder over her, staying close to Kathryn, the beeping seeming to frighten her.

"Hey, it's okay, he's not going to hurt you," Kathryn comforted her, smiling at her, squeezing the little girl's upper arm lightly, but she looked unconvinced, watching Tuvok, B'Elanna, Neelix and the Doctor with uncertainty.

After Will, Deanna, Captain Picard and Geordi beamed back to the Enterprise, Scruffy tugged at Chakotay's hand, pulling him and Kathryn away from the others. She faces Kathryn, and murmurs softly in the language of the people of the Amazon, Chakotay translates quietly for her.

"You sure, Scruffy?" she nods, and holds out Neelix's comm badge. She points at the writing on the back and then at Neelix. "Yes, that's Neelix. You like him, don't you?" she nods.

"Funny. Like teddy." Kathryn and Chakotay laugh.

"Yes, I guess he is a bit like a teddy bear. Now, let's say we go home, shall we?"

Kathryn's still asleep, worn out by the long months of pregnancy. Scruffy's poking at the computer with wonder, bewilderment and. every so often, amusement, as she found something she liked in the computer's databanks, her breakfast forgotten. Chakotay smiles; he enjoys watching Scruffy tamper with the computers and Kathryn sleep.

They are on Voyager, in family quarters, happy with life together. Kathryn had started to open up more, and spent more time with the crew. She spoke often with the Enterprise crew, and the crews took shore leave together, retrieved supplies from the same place, made the same friends and the same enemies. Life was happy. Life was content. Life was good. All was well.


End file.
